Adaptation to climate change is one of the major challenges of our time and is inextricably linked with the management of oceans and fresh water systems. Rising air and sea temperatures and sea levels, changing rain patterns, melting ice and snow, stronger storms and increasing acidification of oceans all call for adaptive measures to ensure resilience to floods and droughts risks, and preserve the adaptive capacity of both oceans and fresh water systems. While oceans and fresh water systems each play their own role, they interact as well. Both are under increasing pressure by human activities and human-induced climate change. Fish stocks are overfished or have collapsed; sea level rise threatens low-lying islands and coastal areas; aquifers are emptied or can no longer be used due to pollution, and mistakes in land use contribute to erosion and floods. All these issues point at the necessity to find solutions which guarantee sustainable use of oceans and fresh water resources, mitigate climate change effects and enhance adaptation.

This conference aims to bring together lawyers working on water and ocean law, sustainability and adaptation to climate change in order to discuss how the law can and should achieve sustainable management of oceans, river basins and deltas, and to present a comparative overview on the topic of compensation in nature and water law from various European countries.
The topics that will be covered in the thematic sessions are:

Values, principles and rights in water, ocean and sustainability law

Institutional frameworks in water and ocean law

Embedding adaptiveness into water and ocean law in order to prevent, reduce and manage disaster risks